JOHNSON CITY – East Tennessee State University received impressive accolades at this year’s Tennessee Association of Museums (TAM) conference.
The ETSU Tipton and Slocumb Galleries won the Award of Excellence and were nominated for the prestigious Past Presidents Award for its “Black and Queer Appalachia” project at the conference.
The “Black and Queer Appalachia” project included two African American group exhibitions titled “Black Gaze,” which was co-curated by Lyn Govette and Lynn Bachmann and featured local Appalachian Highland artists. The project also featured “Y’All Don’t Hear Me: The Black Appalachia” curated by Kreneshia Whiteside-McGee, which highlighted 28 visual, literary and performance artists from the 13 Appalachian states. That included the iconic poet Nikki Giovanni, who visited Northeast Tennessee as part of the exhibition. The project further included the LGBTQ+ photography exhibition “This Skin I’m In: Narratives of the Self,” co-curated by Starr Sariego and Tema Stauffer, as well as the diversity mural “Sounds of Our Souls,” a collaborative work by mixed American artist Jason Flack with collaborators from local youth centers and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) communities.
Director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay received the Award of Excellence during the conference for launching the “Crafting Blackness” initiative, a research, publication and exhibition series about the 100 Years of “Black Craft History” in Tennessee that will have its premiere at ETSU in Fall 2023 and will culminate with a book publishing in 2027. The ETSU Tipton and Slocumb Galleries continue to provide diverse, accessible and inclusive art programming in the region and the state through their collaborative and innovative programming, she said.
The Reece Museum at ETSU was a recipient of two TAM awards. The Reece Museum Collections Portal won an Award of Excellence and “Blighted Pine: Appalachian Ancestors” was recognized with an Award of Commendation.
The Reece Museum was formally dedicated in 1965, though the original collection of artifacts dates to 1928, when students brought in objects related to their family history as part of a class folklore project. One of the first museums in Tennessee to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Reece currently houses over 22,000 artifacts that represent a rich and varied field of material culture, with a focus on local history and visual art. Before the launch of the Collections Portal, the artifacts housed at the Reece Museum were only accessible to in-person visitors. During the pandemic period, museum staff dedicated time and energy to developing digital accessibility and successfully applied for an National Endowment for the Humanities grant to fund the development of an online Collections Portal. The Reece Museum Collections Portal won an Award of Excellence for Digital Media in the Digital Collections category.
“Blighted Pine: Appalachian Ancestors” explored connections between past and present through living history installations and poetic interpretations. Beginning as a component of the Governor’s School for the Scientific Exploration of Tennessee Heritage, the original exhibition evolved into a larger project that brought ideas of memory and ancestry to the forefront. These displays were accompanied by selected poems from Dr. Jesse Graves’ 2022 book of poetry, “Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine: Poems.”
Along with the poetry were interpretations made by Governor’s School students. The coupling of these installations and writings created a unique atmosphere of familial nostalgia that evoke a sense of place and home – a connection to this region’s Appalachian ancestors, museum staff said. “Blighted Pine: Appalachian Ancestors” won an Award of Commendation for Educational Programming in the School Programs category.
The Reece Museum, a part of the Department of Appalachian Studies at ETSU, is a unit of the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services. The museum is located on the campus of ETSU and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit etsu.edu/reece or call (423) 439-4392.
“This year we presented 76 awards, representing 34 museums, including two awards recognizing Emerging Museum Professionals, five awards recognizing outstanding volunteerism, and our overall winner of the Past President’s Award, chosen by the past presidents of TAM, which this year was presented to the Memphis Museum of Science and History,” said Tori Mason, historic site manager at Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, who serves as the chair of the TAM Awards Committee. “Once again, Tennessee museums showed their creativity, resourcefulness, commitment and heart, while providing outstanding programs and opportunities for their audiences.”